This course is designed to provide an integrative analysis of the characteristic behaviors of healthy families and marriages derived from five primary sources: direct observation of healthy families, the literature from major family therapy theorists, the empirically-based schemas of optimal family health, the research of behavioral correlates of healthy functioning, and the empirically based models of healthy marital and family functioning. The course is designed to inform the graduate student about optimal families and to relate this material conceptually to clinical assessment and interventions. Students also examine healthy functioning across the family developmental stages. Students who complete this course will gain a perspective to balance their exposure to the significant literature and training for marriage and family therapists that is skewed toward pathology.